The First United Bank recently opened its doors to a stunning new building in Moore, Okla. Designed by Gensler, a global architecture firm, the building creates a welcoming space that supports the comfort and well-being of all occupants, all the while being sustainable and timeless. These design goals help the building embody one of First United Bank’s key values of serving the community.
The 40,000-square-foot building integrates innovative sustainable strategies, including rainwater harvesting, deep roof overhangs, efficient HVAC design and more. The design team extends the eco-conscious approach to its material palette, using a renewable mass timber structure and high-performance curtain wall system to create a simple yet contemporary cuboidal form.
Central to the design intent, a curtainwall structural silicone glazing system wraps around the bank’s mass timber structure, spanning three floors and over 12,000 square feet. The high-performance structural silicone glazed glass held to the steel frame by toggles creates uninhibited sightlines to facilitate community engagement.
An Engineering Marvel in the Entryway
In an effort to encourage engagement and commemorate the entrance to the building, the architects designed the main lobby with a monumental staircase in a three-story space, with a curtain wall on one surface. Extending a glass curtain wall from the ground to the roof on a three-story façade, without any intermediate support can be a significant challenge for any project’s engineering team.
Elaborating on the undertaking, Jorge De Loera, one of the architects involved in the project says, “Achieving a height of this magnitude without the need for floor plates or a beam to transfer gravity loads is an engineering feat no typical curtain wall can achieve.”
Rising to the challenge, the manufacturer provided custom, heavy-duty, laser-welded “T”-shaped and rectangular framing profiles and anchorage detail to realize the intended design without any compromise to either aesthetics or structural integrity. The curtainwall system spans 39 feet in height with no vertical support joints or splicing in the main lobby at the First United Bank. Its successful application has significant long-term benefits to the occupants at the bank.
Minimal Visible Metal and Maximum Glazing Connect People
Maintaining connections with fellow occupants to build a sense of community was an important design goal at the First United Bank. Together with an open floor plan and vertically stacked areas that overlap each other, the curtainwall framing system virtually dissolves spatial boundaries to transform how visitors and staff interact.
“People in the lobby can see the people in the café, all the way to the mezzanine, making these common spaces feel full of energy,” De Loera explains. By establishing visual connectivity through the high-performance glazing system and spatial planning, the design team created an interconnected, communal environment, enabling engagement and interaction.
Despite the building’s visual connectivity, there is still a sense of privacy. The curtain wall system’s structural silicone can reduce sound penetration, bolstering the purpose of the high-performing building envelope. The approach aligns the design with the institution’s key objectives centered on community welfare and also enhances occupants’ experience within the building in more than one way.
Uninterrupted Glazing Promotes a Love for Nature
“Establishing a connection to the outside and maximizing natural light are two traits proven to promote the well-being of building occupants,” De Loera reports. Building on this evidence-based approach, the design team at Gensler integrates biophilia, an innate love for nature, by opening the interiors of the First United Bank to uninterrupted views of the landscape outside.
The expansive curtainwall’s slender steel profiles empower Gensler to facilitate larger opening sizes without the need for additional support. This in turn increases the surface area for light penetration, filling the interiors with natural light and offering sweeping views of the Oklahoma prairies and skies. The narrowness of the metal profiles further reduces interruptions to sightlines and creates a monolithic façade.
The system at the bank also incorporates high-performance glazing sealed to the steel frame using toggles and structural silicone. The system augments the glazing and furthers the bank’s larger sustainability issue by helping “minimize thermal breaks as much as possible,” De Loera explains.
Leading the Way Forward
Although the First United Bank project was the first time the manufacturer’s curtainwalls were installed on a mass timber structure, the system pushes the needle forward with what is possible with floor-to-ceiling glazing. The high-performance glazing supports Gensler in aligning the building’s design with the bank's values of promoting community engagement and sustainability. While doing so, it also strengthens Gensler’s creative pursuit to “create monumental spaces,” leaving no stone unturned to establish the bank’s building as a market differentiator for years to come.
